Delhi acid attack: Prime accused bought acid from Flipkart, left phone and scooty with friend to create alibi

All three accused of the acid attack on a 17-year-old girl in Delhi’s Dwarka Mod area were arrested on Wednesday. During interrogation, it was found that the three -- prime accused Sachin Arora and his two friends Harshit Aggarwal (19) and Virender Singh (22) -- planned the attack on schoolgirl meticulously down to the minute detail to mislead the police. 

Special Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, Sagar Preet Hooda told a press conference that the acid used in the attack was procured through an e-commerce portal and payment was made by Arora through an e-wallet.

In a statement, police said on the basis of technical evidence, it was found that the acid was procured on Flipkart. There was no immediate response from the e-commerce portal.

During interrogation, it was learnt that Arora and the victim were friends till September. They fell out and this led to the accused to attack her, Hooda said, adding that he lived in the girl's neighbourhood. 

The incident was caught on a CCTV camera and the class 12 student could be seen shaking vigorously after the attack that left her with burns to her face, police said, adding that the teen was with her younger sister when the attack took place at Mohan Garden near Uttam Nagar.

The girl has suffered eight per cent facial burns and her eyes have also been affected, the special police commissioner said, adding that she has been admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital's burn ICU ward and is stable.

Police said prima facie, it appears that nitric acid was used in the attack. Samples have been sent for forensic examination, they said.

Delhi reported 11 acid attack cases in 2018 and 10 in 2019. The national capital saw only two cases in 2020, when the country was under a lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. In India, 228 cases were reported in 2018, followed by 249 the next year and 182 in 2020, according to data.

Special Police Commissioner Hooda said Arora and Aggarwal were on the motorcycle and Singh aided them in the crime. Before the incident, Singh took Arora's scooty and mobile phone to another location to create an alibi and mislead investigaters, the officer said. Hooda added that following Arora's arrest, police zeroed in on Aggarwal.

Waiting outside the Safdarjung Hospital ICU ward, her father told reporters that her sister was with her at the time.

"My daughter left home at 7.30 am and as soon as she crossed the street, she was attacked. The incident happened within six to seven minutes of her leaving the house. My youngest daughter had gone along with her and then came running to us," he said.

On whether she was being harassed or stalked, he said she had made no such complaint.

The incident was reported to the Mohan Garden Police Station around 9 am and before the Safdarjung Hospital, she was admitted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital, police said.

The girl's mother got emotional while talking about her daughter and said, "I was not in a state to see her condition. She could not even open her eyes and was saying, 'I am in pain'."

Recapping the events of the morning, her uncle said she was walking towards the metro station with her sister when she was attacked.

The pain must have been excruciating and she ran towards nearby shops for help. One shopkeeper poured milk on her face to alleviate the agony, he said.

"They were waiting for one of their friends so that they could take the metro from Dwarka Mor and go to school. Suddenly, two men on a motorcycle arrived there and threw acid on her," the uncle told reporters.

(With PTI inputs)